Current trends in the Indian potato market

According to Mr S.K. Gautam, CEO of NR Tradewind Services Pvt Ltd in Delhi, higher consumer prices for potatoes can be expected during the next months in India. Mr Gautam says this trend is confirmed by several market sources and is indicative of the heavy rains and floods across many regions in India during the past growing season.

“The heavy rains in the states of Karnatka, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, besides the flood situation in Kerala, are expected to cause this trend since fresh vegetable supplies will be very limited,” he says.

“Heavy rains and floods will lead to a demand and supply gap especially in the southern region of India.” Mr Gautam also points out that the total volume of potatoes in storage was lower initially when harvesting started compared to last year’s crop in storage.

“The estimated storage figures of the different states, for the current production year were quite low compared to the market availability of potatoes in storage last year,” he says.

In the important potato producing states of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, potatoes in storage were 22% and 30% less. Mr Gautam expects that the area planted to potatoes will increase across India compared to last year, in particular because of encouraging price trend.